The Last Airbender (Combo Pack) Blu-rayReview

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Great disc, not so great movie.

By R.L. Shaffer

What the heck happened to M. Night Shyamalan? He was such a great director. His stories were fascinating, sometimes scary and almost always thoughtfully rich with spiritual metaphor. In short, he was one of the best and brightest filmmakers in the industry. His films meant something.

Then there was Lady in the Water. It was Shyamalan's most deeply personal mainstream film to date. But critics and audiences didn't react as positively as they had once done with his previous films (including the tepid reception of The Village). Then, there was The Happening, an unintentionally hilarious, embarrassingly dull, stupid movie that gave us the worst performances Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel have ever given. The movie was a travesty.

But, to be honest, neither of those films is as shockingly bad as The Last Airbender. The movie is an unmitigated disaster, a putrid patchwork of the original, immensely popular animated series stitched together by jaw-droppingly wretched performances, bad creative decisions (coming from all departments) and a story that's all exposition, and no character depth.

To be frank, it's staggering how much this film gets it wrong. It's curiously offensive, and not just the race-bending of the leads, but the culture of the elements (the good "water people" are Caucasian – mostly British, while the bad "fire people" are primarily Indian). It's layered with dozens of bizarre, uneven edits, a cheesy narration, so many post-dubbed sequences and jarring changes in pace. Many of the camera angles and shot compositions are puzzling, eerily reminiscent of the awful creative choices on Battlefield Earth. Performances, even from the likes of Dev Patel and Cliff Curtis, are frustratingly wonky, fueled by shallow back-stories and little screen time. And our hero, Aang (Noah Ringer), seems completely off-key, delivering his dialogue with a monotone curiosity that never seems to fit. And worse yet, the film's entire advertising campaign gives away the finale, ruining any tension this film might have otherwise had.

Save for a few brief moments of visual wonder, there's virtually nothing about The Last Airbender that works. It's an awful adaptation of the original story, and it's nearly incomprehensible if you're unfamiliar with the world of the TV series. I once loved the films of M. Night Shyamalan. He was a true artist, and a wonderful storyteller. I'm not sure where he went, but like the Avatar, we need him to come back.

While the film is a proverbial train wreck, the Blu-ray disc is actually quite stellar. The film's glossy visuals are brought to life thanks to a stunning AVC encode that's flush with bold visual design, terrific details, fine shadows and inky blacks. There's not a dust speck in sight, and virtually no encode hiccups, either, save from some minor color banding every now and then. Please note: The 3D version of the film is not found in this combo set. Rather, the 3D version of The Last Airbender is available as a standalone release, but be warned, by all accounts the film looked pretty terrible in 3D.

The picture's monumental DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix is incredibly detailed, seasoned with intense surround elements, hearty bass and mostly solid dialogue (a few strange distortions are heard during two quieter moments toward the middle of the film). There's nary a scene here that isn't elaborately designed and beautifully brought to life by this high-res presentation. Admittedly, this is one of those tracks that – in a way – makes the film a little more tolerable than it would otherwise be, mostly because the vivacious atmosphere of this mix is always active and dazzling.

Extras offer the usual making-of insight, though there are a few solid standouts. Once again, though, Paramount mostly shies away from any true BD innovations, embracing classic documentaries and featurettes instead.

Starting things off, there's an exhaustive, beautifully crafted nine-part 60-minute documentary titled "Discovering The Last Airbender" which examines several aspects of the production, from its story, to locations, music, spiritual metaphors and more. In fact, this is such a wonderfully textured documentary, it makes one dearly wish the film were better.

Moving on, there are three shorter featurettes to peruse. "Siege of the North" takes a look at the film's effects, both practical and digital. It runs 19 minutes. "Origins of the Avatar" is just that – a 7-minute origins featurette exploring the film's source material. And "Katara for a Day" is basically a fluffy 5-minute set tour with one of the film's stars.

Also, there's a series of mostly needless deleted scenes (running 12 minutes) and a 5-minute outtakes reel full of the usual goofs and gaffes. Finally, there's a select-scene picture-in-picture track titled "Avatar Annotations" which offers more interviews and behind-the-scenes footage while certain sequences from the film play. I'm not really sure why this wasn't expanded into a feature-length track. Extras on disc one are presented in high definition. Disc two features a DVD copy of the film and a Digital Copy. Both, naturally, are presented in standard definition.

The Last Airbender is easily M. Night Shyamalan's messiest, most tragic film. Why this once brilliant filmmaker has fallen so hard is a bit puzzling and depressing. To be honest though, it seems Shyamalan's style of filmmaking just didn't gel with this story, resulting in a film few will likely fall in love with. But, for those who do, and those curious to see what Shyamalan did (or didn't do) with the film, this Blu-ray should prove quite an exciting, visually alluring experience.